So where to begin... It's been a few days since my last post partly due to the fact that I've been moving around quite a bit and partly due to the fact that I've been dealing with bike issues as well. I suppose I have good and bad news. The good news is that I finally was able to pick up my bike from FedEx(yay!). I have to admit that during my time here I had been going through bike withdrawals and it was nice to assemble the bike out of the box and finally have a pair of wheels again. The bad news is that the second box I shipped, the one which contained a lot of the tools and equipment that I need for touring, is somehow still in Oakland, California. Fuck - Fed - Ex. I've had nothing but problems dealing with them, and it's been driving me a little nuts trying to work through their bureaucracy. It looks like I won't be able to receive that second package until around Thursday or so, which gives me a few more days before I can officially start my tour. Perhaps it was meant to be.
I've been thinking about interesting ways of occupying the next few days while i wait for the second package and a couple of ideas have come to mind. Going to Copenhagen and visiting the squats there seems like a rather nice idea, although I've heard it's expensive to travel there. I've managed to befriend a few people who are visiting Berlin that live there, so I could have a free place to stay. The other option would be to do short day trips around Berlin on my bike to get in better shape again. We'll see.
Let me try to recap what's happened since my last post. I've been able to do some nice things in Berlin and to tell the truth I've fell in love with the city. As far as my tour goes, I've been able to map out quite a bit of it in detail, and through couchsurfing.com, have lined up some places to stay in several cities across Germany. Couchsurfing is a great community, and there are often too many people in each city offering places to stay, so you have to pick one over the others. What a nice world we live in where there's an overabundance of people willing to take you in without any cost. I've been sleeping in various places over the past few days, one night at Resa's (a friend of Anna's, whom Marla is staying with), and am now sleeping in this radical housing project near Rosenthaler Platz. I was able to cook dinner at Resa's flat with Marla a couple of nights ago which was wonderful (although the couscous was rather soggy, oops) and was also able to catch a few films as well(Crybaby, Pan's Labyrinth and Short Bus) on her laptop over the course of a couple of nights which was refreshing.
Yesterday was the German version of the Gay Pride festival in Berlin which took over one of the main streets in Kreuzberg. I ended up going with the usual gang and had a few beers and then wandered over to Kopi for the after party which is where things went crazy. Like I said in an earlier post, I haven't been feeling like Kopi is exactly my scene, but last night was an exception. There was a drag performance in the basement(which completely went over my head as they were speaking German) and then they were doing lip syncing performances to old German folk music which was rather amusing. The entire squat ended up turning into a giant dance party with a punk show going on in the stage area, dance music being played in the bar and the basement show going on, and I ended up staying there until around 7 or 8 this morning. Afterwards, a friend of ours from Berlin took us for a walk to a truly unique and beautiful area of town.
We were all still a little drunk and very very tired but we decided to tag along anyways. We hopped a fence or two and ended up in the middle of a large network of abandoned train warehouses. It seemed like every surface in the place was covered in the most beautiful graffiti, and we must have spent at least an hour and half wandering around. The place was beautiful beyond words, and I hope to go back at least one more time before leaving Berlin. I took lots of photos which are now on Flickr(link at the bottom of this post).
One thing I'd like to note is that Capitalism seems to have a very different feel here in Berlin than it did at home. It seems much more abstract and conceptual, and less pressing and encroaching. For example, in the States it seems as if you must always be working to financially afford your life and not go into debt. This is partially due to the ridiculously high rent costs as well as the number of hours a week one is forced to work (which continues to rise with each year). Also, there is a huge lack of public space in the U.S., with more and more of our meeting and gathering places becoming privatized. You can truly feel the vice of capital pressing in and encroaching on most areas of life in the states. In Berlin however, there seems to be an overabundance of housing (a lot of the big apartment buildings near half empty, or so I hear) and you can grab a nice large flat for between 200 and 300 Euro a month. On top of that it is not too hard to receive money from the state and then do some undocumented work on the side, not to mention that you can get paid to go to school. All of these things in combination make the city seem so much more relaxed and less frantic. People seem to have much more leisure time, and this radically changes the atmosphere in the neighborhoods. Activities become less about spending money and more about spending time with other people.
This notion of travelling has also gotten me thinking about identity and the concept of home in new ways. Not having a concrete place where I can retreat and take care of individual things like writing, reading, drawing, and even just relaxing changes the way you interact with the world quite a bit. I feel like I've become a less of an 'atom' and more of a leaf being carried by a gust of wind. I think this is due to the fact that I'm dependant on other people for housing and because I'm always moving around from place to place, from experience to experience. I suppose in fewer words I feel like I'm taking a lot more in than I am contributing, and this is a big change for me as I tended to be rather introverted while I was in California. I talked to Marla and then Mikey about this for a short while, and I feel that it's something I haven't quite figured out yet. Perhaps it'll make more sense when I'm done traveling and out of the storm.
These are all things I need to think about for a while more before I'm able to draw any conclusions, which should keep me busy for quite a while.
I got word from my father today that it looks like my grandfather will pass away soon so he's flying out to Wisconsin to be with him. I have a lot of great memories of my grandfather. He used to take me and my Brother out on the Mississippi to go fishing and would build us snow forts in the Winter. He would make the most beautiful wooden carvings of various ducks and birds by hand. He had a good sense of humor and was very proud of his Scottish heritage. I lived with him and my grandmother in Wisconsin for a summer, and I feel like I got to know them quite well while I stayed with them. Him and my grandmother also payed for my college, which is a gift I knew I would never be able to thank them enough for. He lived a full and happy life and I am thankful for being able to know him. I'll miss him.
Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to get it all down. Here's the link to the Flickr images, the only new photos are in the Berlin set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30541750@N00/sets/
Hasta luego.
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Go kick around town on the bike. What could be better than traveling in a foreign city than doing it with your bike?
As far as life as a blowing leaf goes, I've always found that's what traveling teaches you. We're always told to get out and travel, go see new places. In my experience, the lessons learned from traveling aren't about new places and people. Rather, they are about learning things about yourself when you're put in new situations. What might make you uncomfortable when you're in familiar places at home feel completely different when you're so far away from everything you know.
You've my regards with your grandfather; you know I'm in the same place. Rarely have I feared death, but it makes me most sad that the people around you have to suffer the most from it.
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